7.5 Notifying Users with Message Templates and Message Stamps

MailMarshal provides two ways of sending notifications by email.

Message stamps are short blocks of text that can be added to an email message. You can use a stamp to add a company disclaimer, or to warn the recipient of a message that MailMarshal has modified it.

Message templates are complete email messages that can be sent to a user or administrator. MailMarshal uses templates for system notifications such as non-delivery reports. You can also use them to provide auto-responders or other custom notices. MailMarshal can use special digest templates to provide users with summary information about quarantined email.

MailMarshal applies message stamps to both HTML and plain text portions of an email message. Message templates can also include plain text and HTML bodies.

Variables can be used in both templates and stamps. Variables are specially formatted strings you can insert in a stamp or template. When MailMarshal uses the stamp or template, it replaces the variables with information about the specific message. This facility allows you to provide detailed information about the actions MailMarshal has taken on a specific message.

7.5.1 Message Templates

Message templates are used when MailMarshal sends a notification email message based on the outcome of rule processing. The most common use of notification messages is to notify appropriate parties when an email message is blocked.

Notifications are a very powerful tool to inform and modify user behavior. When well thought out and constructed, they can save the administrator a lot of time.

You can also use a notification to set up a general auto responder based on message headers or content. For instance, MailMarshal could respond to a message to robot@ourcompany.com with the subject “Send Catalog” by returning the product catalog to the sender as an email attachment.

The same rule can send several notification messages. For instance, if MailMarshal detects a virus you could choose to send different messages to an email administrator, the external sender, and the intended internal recipient of the message.

You can attach files to a notification. Attachments can include the original message, the MailMarshal processing log for the message, and any other file (such as a virus scanner log file).

You can create a template as plain text, HTML, or both. If you choose to create a template with both HTML and plain text bodies, you must edit the two bodies separately. If you choose to create a template with HTML only, MailMarshal will automatically generate a plain text equivalent of the template with similar formatting.

You can include links to images in HTML templates. You cannot embed images.

7.5.2 Creating a Message Template

To work with templates, in the left pane of the Management Console, select Policy Elements. Then select Message Templates from the right pane menu.

To create a message template:

1.In the right pane of the Management Console, select Message Templates.

2.On the Action menu, select New Message Template to open the Message Template window.

3.By default, MailMarshal creates a HTML message body. MailMarshal will automatically generate a plain text equivalent of the message body when using the template. To choose a plain text body or edit both types separately, click Options.

4.To see additional address fields, click Options.

5.Enter a name for the template.

6.Enter appropriate information in the Header Details section. For instance, enter the email address to which replies should be sent in the Return Path field.

7.Enter text in the body section. To view the raw HTML, right-click in the HTML pane and select Edit Raw HTML. Edit the HTML, or paste HTML source from another editor, then click Save to return to the message template window.

8.You can attach files to the notification, including the original message, the MailMarshal message processing log, and other files. To attach one or more files, select the appropriate box(es) and enter the file names if necessary.

9.You can use variables marked with braces { }. To see a list of variables available in any field, type { to open a context menu. You can also enter variable names manually. You can use nested variables. For details of the variables available in templates, see “Using Variables”.

7.5.3 Creating Digest Templates

The MailMarshal Array Manager uses digest templates to deliver periodic message digests to users who self-manage end-user management folders. For details of digesting, see “Setting Up Message Digests”.

Digest templates are similar to message templates. The key differences are:

•You cannot attach files to digest templates.

•You must associate each digest template with a message digest. See “Setting Up Message Digests”.

•You cannot edit the “To” field. The recipient is controlled by settings of the message digest.

Digest templates support variables specific to the digesting function that are not available in message templates. These variables allow MailMarshal to provide a list of information about several messages within the same notification message. The most important of these variables is the HTML digest table variable $MessageDigestTableHTML. 

The following arguments are available to customize the behavior of this variable. All arguments are optional.

Example:

{$MessageDigestTableHTML=COMPACT,GROUP,SHOWFROM=no,
RELEASEURL=http://extranet.example.com/SpamConsole}

For details of other variables available in digest templates, see “Using Variables”.

To create a digest template:

1.In the right pane of the Management Console, select Message Templates.

2.On the Action menu, select Add Digest to open the Digest Template window.

3.By default, MailMarshal populates the template with basic information. MailMarshal creates separate HTML and plain text message bodies. To choose to use only one of the two types, click Options. 

4.To see additional address fields, click Options.

5.Enter a name for the template.

6.Enter appropriate information in the Header Details section. For instance, enter the email address to which replies should be sent in the Return Path field.

7.Enter text in the body section. To view the raw HTML, right-click in the HTML pane and select Edit Raw HTML. Edit the HTML, or paste HTML source from another editor, then click Save to return to the message template window.

8.You can use variables marked with braces { }. To see a list of variables available in any field, type { to open a context menu. You can also enter variable names manually. You can use nested variables. For details of the variables available in templates, see “Using Variables”.

9.Click Save.

7.5.4 Editing Templates

You can edit a template, including the address information and the message bodies.

To edit a template:

1.Double-click a template name in the Management Console.

2.Make changes then click Save. If you have created both a plain text and a HTML version of the template, remember to change both versions.

7.5.5 Duplicating Templates

You can make a copy of a template if you want to use it as the starting point for another template.

To copy a template:

1.Right-click a template name in the Management Console.

2.Choose Duplicate from the context menu.

3.After duplicating the template, make changes to the copy.

7.5.6 Deleting Templates

You can delete a template if it is not used in any rules.

To delete a template:

1.Select a template in the Management Console.

2.Click the Delete icon in the toolbar.

7.5.7 Working with Message Stamps

Message stamps are short blocks of text that MailMarshal can apply to the top or bottom of an email message body. MailMarshal message stamps can include a plain text and an HTML version. MailMarshal will apply the appropriate stamp format to the body text of the same type in the message.

Many companies use message stamps to apply disclaimers or advertising on outgoing email. MailMarshal can also use a message stamp to notify the recipient that a message has been processed (for example by having an offending attachment stripped).

To work with Message Stamps, in the left pane of the Management Console, select Policy Elements. Then select Message Stamps from the right pane menu.

To create a message stamp:

1.In the right pane of the Management Console, select Message Stamps.

2.On the Action menu, select New Message Stamp.

3.Enter a name for the stamp.

4.Select whether the stamp is to appear at the top or the bottom of messages.

5.Enter a plain text version of the message stamp in the Plain Text tab.

6.Enter an HTML version of the stamp in the HTML tab.

•You can apply various formatting, including hyperlinks, to the HTML text using the buttons pro­vided.

•You can define and use local CSS classes in a stamp. See Help for details.

•To view the raw HTML, right-click in the HTML pane and select Edit Raw HTML. Edit the HTML, or paste HTML source from another editor, then click Save to return to the message stamp win­dow.

7.To add the new stamp to the list of available message stamps, click Save.

Both plain text and HTML message stamps can include the same variables available within email notification templates.

7.5.7.1 Duplicating Message Stamps

You can make a copy of a stamp if you want to use it as the starting point for another stamp.

To duplicate a message stamp:

1.Right-click the stamp name in the Management Console.

2.Choose Duplicate from the context menu.

3.After duplicating the message stamp, make any required changes to the copy. Remember to make changes to both the Plain Text stamp and the HTML stamp.

7.5.7.2 Editing Message Stamps

You can make changes to a stamp. Remember to make changes to both the Plain Text stamp and the HTML stamp.

To edit a message stamp:

1.Double-click the stamp name in the right hand pane of the Management Console.

2.Make the required changes.

3.Click Save.

7.5.7.3 Deleting Message Stamps

You can delete a message stamp if it is not used in any rules.

To delete a message stamp:

1.Select the stamp in the right hand pane of the Management Console.

2.Click the Delete icon in the toolbar.

7.5.8 Using Variables

You can use variables when you create a message template, digest template, message stamp, or message classification description, and also in the field substitution of content analysis Header Rewrite rules. MailMarshal substitutes the appropriate information when processing each message or digest.

Variables are marked by curly braces { }. You can select from available variables in any field where they are available in a template, stamp, or classification. To see a list of available variables in a specific field, type { .

Not all variables are available in all contexts. MailMarshal may not have the required information to substitute. In particular, if a message is deadlettered, information about the message content is not available. If MailMarshal does not have any data, it will enter empty text into the variable marker or return the variable marker text.

The following table lists commonly used variables and their functions:

7.5.9 Date Formatting

When you use dates in variables within message templates, message stamps, and logging classifications, you can include formatted dates. This feature is especially useful to avoid confusion about the order of day, month, and year in dates.

To use date formatting, include the template variable {date=%%var} where var is one of the sub-variables from the table below. You can include more than one sub-variable within the same date variable. For instance {date=%%d %%b %%Y} would return 07 Apr 2004.

The following table lists the available date formatting sub-variables: